Orange Cake Recipe

Plan a perfect afternoon tea with this wonderful cake recipe. An outstandingly delicious tea- time orange cake recipe that is bursting with flavor and is soft and fluffy as a cloud !! This cake never lasts that long in my house.

Among all the varieties of citrus-y fruits – clementines are my favorites. Whether be a glass full of fresh-squeezed orange juice or enjoying them as is – I just love oranges. There’s nothing more comforting than sitting by a sunny window and enjoy fresh oranges in winters. Yum and delicious!!

Surprisingly, my recent trip to the grocery store yielded some fresh oranges and now I am all up for making a simple yet flavorful orange cake recipe. Yes, an outstandingly delicious and beautiful tea- time orange cake recipe.

RECIPE DETAIL – Because of its low protein content I have used cake flour to prepare my cake. To substitute cake flour – use 1 1/4 (one and one fourth cup ) cup + 2 tablespoon of all purpose flour mixed with 2 tablespoon of cornstarch.

Start by sifting all the dry ingredients together so there are no lumps of flour/baking powder left behind. Next, cream the softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Creaming method incorporates air into this mixture which results in light and fluffy cakes.

Once the creaming process is done and the mixture is pale and light in color, start mixing in the eggs one by one. Add rest of the ingredients, along with dry ingredients and beat until the batter is well blended and smooth.

Bake @350 F for 40- 45 minutes until the toothpick comes out clean. Allow it to cool down completely before inverting. A light dusting of powdered sugar will add charm to this cake. Feel free to add orange glaze on top or enjoy as is.

Once it was cooled, I spread a warm glaze of melted white chocolate all over the top and allowed it drizzle down the sides. It tasted heavenly!!

Do give this easiest orange cake recipe a try and if you happen to make this recipe, please leave me a commentor share your pics with me on Facebook. I would love to see your creation and would be happy to answer any questions. Cheers!

Make the cake for a brunch. I would have liked more orange flavor. The cake was light moist I would have liked a taller cake. But what was I expecting with 1 2/3 cup flour. I will definitely make again when I need a small cake. Easy to put together. Thanks for sharing

Thanks for trying the recipe Christy!
For a more pronounced flavor an extra teaspoon of orange zest would work great.
A taller cake – didn’t the cake rise for you? Also this cake uses 1.5 cup of flour did you make it with 1 2/3 cup flour.

I made this cake today, it turned out really well. However, I substituted half the butter for avocado and greatly increased the quantity of orange zest. I even went ahead and grated one small clementine to add more flavour. I loved this recipe as it was easy to follow and had room for substitutions.

Prepared with lemons as I am lucky enough to have an abundance at the moment, and a couple minor tweeks to be able to use what I had on hand. Turned out fluffy and AWESOME! Excellent recipe! Thanks so much for sharing! Can’t wait to try your other recipes. 💖

Awesome!
Glad you liked the recipe and thanks for taking the time out to share your wonderful feedback with me. 💕
Means a lot!
Naomie, what tweaks did you made to the recipe? Would love to know. Thanks!

As I mentioned, I was using what I had on hand . . . I used self rising flour, but still added the baking powder. Used barely 3/4 cup sugar, zest of 3 lemons and 1/4 cup of lemon juice and followed your directions. Took 40 minutes to bake to perfection! Now I want to try with limes!

Going through your main dish recipes now . . . Yum, you will be keeping me well fed for quite some time!

Thanks for the recipe…I am gluten free so just tried the same recipe but with gluten free flour (mixture of self raising gluten free flour and almond flour) ..I added a little more zest and orange juice for the orange taste and it turned out lovely….i made a cake and then later muffins 🙂 they were too good …

This cake looks awesome, but I don’t know why it wasn’t fluffy and smooth when I baked it as it looked in the picture . On the contrary, it was hard! I was so disappointed. Why do you think this happened although I followed the instructions?

Sorry to hear that this cake didn’t turn out the way you had imagined. There could couple of reasons as to why this cake turned hard for you.
1. If the batter was beaten too quickly then less air incorporated in the batter resulting into a dense/thick cake.
2. Over baking could be a possible reason for a hard cake.
3. Did you use fresh baking powder? Stale baking powder could a possible reason too.

I have read some of the previous comments and noticed several of them stated the cake has an eggy taste. I wonder why that would be. There seems to be a nice balance of everything in the recipe , so I am really looking forward to trying it. I love the presentation! Simple is so much better than too much. Just a lovely orange glaze with some rind in it is so much more appealing than a heavy icing.

Thanks Carol. I have stated in my comments that if eggs are not beaten well, then the taste will linger in the baked cake. Add eggs one by one to avoid this issue. Also adding just a tablespoon of orange zest will add a mild citrus tone to this cake which will be very mild. If you want a more pronounced and noticeable flavor, add a teaspoon or two more.
Hope that answers your query and happy baking!

Thanks for stopping by Lacy.
This is a moist cake and if you try to cut it into half, it may not turnout the way you had imagined. But if you bake this cake into 2 small cakes (in a 6 or 8 inch pan) than it can be made into a layered cake. Happy baking and I hope the little one enjoy his special day and have a fun-filled birthday. 🙂

Your cake looks beautiful!! I’m going to give it a try but was wondering if I could use some orange juice pulp instead of orange zest and juice! What are your thoughts about that? Thanks for sharing your recipe!

For cake flour – Spoon out 1 cup of all purpose flour in a bowl. Remove 2 tablespoon of all purpose flour from the bowl and put it back in the jar.Replace this 2 tablespoon of all purpose flour with 2 tablespoon of cornstarch and add it to the bowl. Mix it well. Using a strainer sift this mixture well so that there are no lumps left.

Looks delicious . Tasting tomorrow.however it stuck to the bottom of the pan and broke in half.the glaze will glue it back together again lol.Ive used this bunt pan many times before.never had a problem.

Thanks for trying the recipe Dolly! There’s nothing more disappointing than a stuck cake to the bottom of the pan. Maybe the cake was still warm when you tried to flip it over and this caused the breaking.
Agree, glaze will fix this issue. Hope you like the taste. 🙂

I was reviewing some of the “disappointed” in texture and flavor comments, and there are several things that I think might not have been done properly, based on the comments – and maybe could be included in the instructions.
1.- the longer you beat butter and sugar together, the better the batter will rise. “Soft” butter should be at room temperature (NOT softened in microwave or melted over heat) – and I usually use what here in Canada is called fruit sugar – a more finely ground granulated sugar known as caster sugar in England/NZ/Australia. I make sure to beat at high speed minimum 5 mins, usually up to 7 or 8 mins, scraping down the bowl every minute or so.
2.- to avoid that “eggy” smell, the eggs should be added one at a time, making sure you mix really well and scrape down the bowl before adding the next one. If you add all the eggs at once, that smell will linger.
Ruchi, I hope this helps…love your wonderful selection of Indian recipes. I’ve been looking for a one stop web site for all things Indian, that are well explained and easy to follow!

The cake turned out to be raaw from the inside even though it was totally cooked from out side. I tried the exact recipe all the amounts exact but still its not that great.taste is good but it does nt have the cake texture at all.:(

Tina, I’m sorry to hear that this recipe did not turn out the way you had imagined. Below are the possible reasons.

1. Main reason for uncooked cake in the center – oven temperature is too high. If the sides are cooked but the center remains raw/uncooked than this indicates that your oven temperature is off by a few degrees. To solve this issue, I would suggest lower the temperature by few degrees and bake the cake a bit longer.
2. Another reason – maybe you’re not preheating the oven long enough.
3. Other option would be to loosely lay a piece of foil over the cake while it is baking. This will trap the heat, resulting in a evenly baked cake.

I hope you give this recipe a try again with a more successful outcome next time. Thanks. 🙂

Thanks for trying the recipe Carolyn and sharing your valuable feedback with me.
Maybe adding an extra 1/2 a tablespoon of orange zest will take care of the eggy taste. I agree with you and Betty, orange glaze would be really nice. 🙂

This recipe is anything but fluffy. It didn’t rise at all. I tried it twice following the recipe exactly. I wasted three hours of my life on your recipe. Didn’t taste orange-y at all, didn’t rise, tasted like I don’t even know what. It tasted so bland so short bread ish. I would not recommend to anyone I threw it in the trash twice. Super disappointed 🙁

Emily, I am so sorry to learn that you had such a bad experience with my most tested and tried cake recipe. This has never failed me. Most people have tried it and it has turned out so well for them. But thank you for letting me know, it’s really hard to comment without knowing what went wrong as every oven is different!

Thanks for trying the recipe Rola!! When I started baking, I had the same issue then after experimenting I learned that these few tricks can get rid of the eggy smell.
1. Use a beater or mixer and beat the eggs properly in the batter. If the eggs are not beaten well, they will retain their smell.
2. Use some extra drops of vanilla essence.
3. Try adding vanilla essence when you are beating your eggs, it will take care of the smell.
Thanks!!

Just in time for Thanskgiving. As a trial, I baked this recipe today as mentioned, and it is perfect!! Will be making it over thanks giving with an orange glaze. Thanks dear. BTW, steps are a real visual treat.